Amanda Olszewski
Mrs. Winter Sumner
Textual Analysis
September 23, 2007

The Fourth of July
The story “The Fourth of July” was written about a young girl growing up and discovering the world around her. Audre Lorde is the author of her own story in which she tells about the summer of her eight grade graduation. Throughout this story, Audre uses very dramatic imagery to get various points across. Through her sustaining descriptions I felt as if I was sitting right next to her. Also in the story, irony plays an immense role in how everything links together. Little things that did not seem to have any reference together all of the sudden seemed to make the story even more interesting. The tone in the story also added a lot of personality to the text. From the beginning to the end of the story, the tone played a big role in getting me involved. I felt as if I knew how she felt the whole way through the story. The story starts out in the late 1940’s with Audre’s family making a trip to Washington DC for her and her sister’s graduation. Audre was extremely excited to go on this new adventure, but she did not know what she was about to open her eyes up to.
Throughout the story, Audre uses very vivid and rich words that painted a picture for me as the reader. She used phrases like the “brown bread, green pepper, and little violently yellow iced cakes” (Lorde 567) to help me see what she was looking at. She did this throughout the story to add some deep meaningful color to a time era where everything else seemed to be white and black. This story was written during the 1940’s when segregation was still a big problem in our country. Audre’s family was trying to make it as a black family when everything around them in America seemed to be white. In the story, white began to take on a bigger role than just a color; it began to signify power in the story. White was the color of the waitress who told them they had to leave, the color of the ice cream they could not eat, and the color of the stone monuments that blinded them with their brightness and hardness. White was the color that signified the summer of Audre’s eight grade year, the summer that opened her eyes.
That summer, Audre was shocked when she opened her eyes to the world around her. She learned many important things that trip that she never even knew existed because of her over protective parents. Her parents, up to that point, had her locked in a cage from the all the unpleasant people and things around her. The trip to Washington, D.C. was an exceptionally good learning experience for Audre especially because she went into the trip so positive and excited. Audre was anxious to leave for Washington, D.C. not only because she was going to see the capital of the United States, and all of its monuments, but also because she was going to get to ride on a train during the day. Riding on a train does not seem like a big deal to me, but she on the other hand, had never ridden on a train during the day. When Audre was younger, she rode on a milk train at night because her mom said it was cheaper but she later found out the real reason. Black people used to not be allowed to ride on dining cars during the day, but her mom did not tell her this because she her mom she did not want her to know about the segregation around her. Her mom did not like things she could not change, so she would not speak of them. The train situation has a very unique analogy to it though. The black people were only allowed to ride on trains when it was dark outside, while the white people were allowed to ride the trains during the day when it was bright outside. When I think of dark things, I think of the color black, as well as when I think of bright things, I think of the color white. This then goes back to how everything back then was about black and white.
Audre’s parents kept her behind the walls of their house because they wanted to protect her from the uncertainty of the people surrounding her. Her parents “protected their children by never giving them name, much less discussing their nature” (Lorde 568). This statement made by her parents is very ironic to a statement made later in the story. While they were at a monument, Audre states that their parents do not allow them to wear sunglasses. This makes for a very interesting case because it brings on to hide or to not hide. Her parents are trying to hide her from the bad going on around her, but they don’t allow her to hide behind sunglasses to protect their eyes from the sunlight. It is a very interesting topic that brings on many questions. Without the children wearing sunglasses, it causes them to squint to protect their eyes. When one squints, the black in the eyes begins to overtake the white. This again goes back to the issue of black vs. white.
From the beginning to the end of the story, the tone built adds a lot of personality. The story starts off with Audre very excited to go to Washington DC. She was a young girl with no worries going into the trip to Washington DC, but she left as a young woman trying to find her place in a society that seemed to not need her. This began to answer the question she had in the beginning of the book on how she was “supposed to stop being a child” (Lorde 567). She did not know what she was getting herself into when she left that summer day, but it changed her life forever. This might not have been the best graduation present, but it did teach her a lot of important things. Toward the end of the story Audre’s tone and attitude completely changed from the fun, playful little girl to a mad, young women trying to make a stand on what she believed in. Although her parents would not speak up about how they had been treated, Audre was not going to let anyone push her and her family around. She stopped being a kid and stood up for herself by writing a letter to the president.
This story was a very interesting story to me. The description and vivid words made me feel as if I was right there with the characters in the story. The more and more I read the story, the more information I began to pick up. The ironic statements made attention-grabbing points that I do not think I would have picked up on if I had not reread it. Lastly, the tone in the story really built up the internal emotions of the story. It taught me as the reader how Audre felt while she was going through a very drastic change at such a young age. The story was very enjoyable to read and I learned some valuable facts from it.

Work Cited
Lorde, Audre. "The Fourth of July." Eschholz, Paul, Alfred Rosa and Virginia Clark. Language Awareness: Readings for College Writers, 9th Edition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's , 2005. 567-570.